Dolls are creepy. Especially those damn porcelain dolls. My wife has a collection stowed away in our house and after finally seeing Stuart Gordon’s DOLLS, I’ll be having nightmares of those dolls killing me.

DOLLS and I have an interesting background. I remember being in 5th grade and at a friend’s house. They wanted to watch DOLLS on VHS, but I was too scared. Back then, all horror films scared me. I remember walking by the Horror section of the VHS rental store and forcing myself to look at the boxes. The box art scared me.

Instead of being taught that these movies were pretend, my parents taught me that Horror films were evil. Of the devil. I believed my soul would be dragged to Hell or I could become possessed by an evil spirit just for watching these. I stayed away. Until one fateful day when I decided to watch A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET because a cute girl wanted to watch it. Ever since then, I’ve become a bit of a Horror buff. Especially once I started digging into the “behind the scenes” of these movies. The make-up effects fascinated me. I was hooked.

So, fast forward 14 years. I’ve still never seen DOLLS. This was the perfect time to finally watch this. I’m a fan of Stuart Gordon. RE-ANIMATOR is in myÂ pantheonÂ of Horror films for me. While DOLLS is no RE-ANIMATOR, it was far better than I would have expected it to be. It’s actually a parable of being “young at heart.” It’s scary, funny, dark and twisted.

DOLLS is a perfect midnight movie. It’s surprisingly great. Now, time to track down my wife’s porcelain dolls and smash their faces.